Writing the Walls 2018
When HVCCA opened in 2004, it had a broad vision to support contemporary artists and to offer insight into challenging new works and new media. That same year we also showcased emerg- ing artists from the performance, installation and technology arenas through our first Peekskill Project, placing art along public roads, in Parks and in abandoned buildings throughout the city of Peekskill. We hosted our first Art-in-Residency to Sandra Tomboloni of Florence, celebrating her creativity in a closing solo exhibition. In 2007, 11 years ago, Mara Mills came to me with the suggestion to invite poets and artists of the spoken word to offer original works that would intersect with the art works presented in the exhibitions, to model varied ways for people to relate to contemporary art, to offer the freedom of personal expression through viewing and absorbing the arts in a new and unique way. Since then 11 iterations of Writing the Walls have taken place at HVCCA, with excited participants passing from art work to art work, following the paths of the writers as they read and perform their works in front of their inspiring piece. Our appreciation goes to Mara Mills, our talented Deputy Director and mentor in the Theatre Arts, who, each year, has breathed life into this project and who deftly, guides the poets and playwrights in their readings and performances, and to JoAnn Brody who worked tirelessly to mount the works near their respective art and who made this book a reality. Livia Selmanowitz Straus, PhD Executive Director, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art Writing the Walls The exhibition was called XXLarge and the works on the walls of The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art were indeed enormous; large enough to be stage sets.
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